MINUTES
OF MEETING
The meeting was called to
order by Jen Cooper, HWSA President, at Saengerbund Hall at
Women's
teams absent: Katy Kicks, La Pandilla, Trademark
United, and Urban Express
Coed
teams absent: Band Stars, Blowout Preventers, Buffalo
Wild Wings, Kickers,
MINUTES:
Minutes
of the
President:
1.
We are still looking for a board-level Registrar to supplement Mary DeBauche’s registration work (she is an HFA employee
working for HWSA on a contract basis) by organizing registration sessions prior
to each season and advising the board on registration related issues. Anyone
interested in this position should contact the President.
2.
Pay attention to simple things like bringing your team’s game report
and ID cards to each game, reporting the results and submitting a referee
evaluation via the on-line form afterwards. The ref evaluations are automatically
forwarded to the ref assignor who sends them out to the referees.
3.
Remember that
4.
Please keep your players up to date on rule changes.
5.
Complaints or problems should be addressed by your league commissioner
first, and then taken to the President, if necessary. There is no need to
immediately send emails to everyone on the HWSA board. Please use common
courtesy regarding the language you use, and if you are upset, consider waiting
24 hours before sending that email.
6.
It is very important that you realize that the league cannot rescind
yellow and/or red cards issued by a referee.
Vice president:
1.
Regarding discipline issues, everyone seems to be playing well with
each other -- otherwise, no report.
Secretary:
1.
The
Secretary is out of town and could not attend the meeting. Tom Whitehurst is
sitting in for her.
2.
If
you missed roll call, be sure to see the Secretary after the meeting, as there
is a $10 fine for missing league meetings. Fines for women’s league play may be
paid immediately following the meeting. The Coed Commissioner is tracking coed
fines and will send out fine notices to teams shortly.
Registrar:
1.
As stated earlier, we are looking for a volunteer to fill the Registrar
position. Anyone interested should contact the President.
Treasurer:
1.
So far during the 2003-2004 year we have taken in approximately
$5,450 and spent $208. Our current balance at Wells Fargo is $52,857.
2.
Final 2002-2003 budget numbers show income of $124,294
(including $30,000 from the two WUSA exhibition matches) and expenses of
$141,359. The loss for the year (due to the second WUSA match) is being made up
through sale of tickets donated by the Houston Texans to events at Reliant
Stadium, income from soccer clinics, and other sources.
3.
The financial records are available for review.
4.
The following women’s teams have not paid their field fees:
Women's Commissioner:
1.
Remember to check your schedule on the website. This coming week is the
first week of make-up games and some adjustments to previously posted games
were made very recently.
2.
Over 30 league registration information for the January 2004 season
will be posted on the website shortly
Coed Commissioner:
1.
The Coed Commissioner could not attend the meeting. Jen Cooper and Doug
Buckalew made several announcements on his behalf.
2.
There is some thought being given to partially or entirely doing away
with the separation of the Sunday and Monday leagues in the spring,
particularly in the smaller divisions (divisions 1 and 2). Feedback on this
concept should be emailed to the Coed Commissioner.
3.
Teams need to make sure that they are playing on the correct field as
noted on the schedule, particularly at Cullen and Alief. Referees are assigned
to fields based on the level of play. New maps will be prepared by the
Commissioner and posted on the web shortly.
4.
The original coed Sunday schedule has been revised to move all games
from November 30 to November 23 to better accommodate the Thanksgiving holiday.
5.
Awards are available for three winning teams from the summer season
that have not picked them up yet.
6.
The Coed Commissioner will email yellow and red card reports to the
team reps tomorrow.
7.
Again, team reps should remember that Tuesday
8.
Teams playing night games at Alief should make sure the referees know
to reset the four hour timer before the
9.
Games not played to the 60th minute ordinarily must be
rescheduled. Please let the Coed Commissioner know if your game was ended
before the 60th minute so that it can be rescheduled.
10.
HWSA player ID cards must be presented at each game. If a player is
registered and eligible to play, but doesn’t have an ID card for some reason
they may use a government issued photo ID in lieu of the HWSA card at the
referee’s discretion. A note will be made on the game report and that player’s
eligibility will be checked by the league.
Under the current system, all players should receive their ID cards
before their first game. If you are
missing a player card, please contact Mary DeBauche.
11.
Game reports must be submitted within 48 hours of game time using the
on-line report form. There has been a steady drop in reporting that needs to be
reversed.
12.
The team registration deadline for the spring season will be the
January 7 league meeting.
1.
We are still looking for more lighted fields that are available for
adults. Anyone with information on fields the league might use should contact
the Field Coordinator.
1.
Coed: we should have a new Coed Membership Committee chairman to
replace King Farias by the next meeting.
2.
Women: no report. Contact Heather Correll-Muldoon
if you need a female player.
1.
The league needs a new tournament director. Contact the President if you are interested.
1.
Posted schedules have been revised to reflect all rescheduled games to
date. Please check your schedule for changes as some previously posted make-up
games have been changed recently. Please notify your Commissioner immediately
if a game is cut short for some reason so he or she can make a decision about
rescheduling it.
2.
The league may be sending out a request for proposal to modernize our
website. We want to replace our Spartan look with something more attractive
while employing links to databases to make maintaining the site less labor
intensive and extracting information from the site easier for league members.
Anyone interested in submitting a proposal should contact the Webmeister.
OLD BUSINESS
None
NEW BUSINESS
1.
Elections were held for President, Secretary, and Field Coordinator.
The Vice-president announced that the incumbents for all three offices (Jen
Cooper, President; Sandra Schneider, Secretary; and Silvia Guzman-Urteaga, Field Coordinator) agreed to run for re-election.
He then asked for additional nominations from the floor. When none were forthcoming, it was moved and
seconded that the incumbent slate be elected by acclamation. Motion passed.
2.
Jeannine Morgan (Dragons; women’s league, third division) raised a
question about why the referee assignor said he didn’t have their game vs.
Meadows Too on his schedule two weeks ago. The Women’s Commissioner indicated
that the Assignor was mistaken – he was provided a schedule of all games at the
beginning of the season. The Dragon’s rep asked if previously missing telephone
numbers were now available for all team reps so that they could be contacted
regarding field conditions. The President replied that the missing numbers have
been posted and reiterated the need for each team to have at least two contact
people at separate home numbers. A discussion followed regarding the league’s
policy for deciding when and how fields would be deemed unplayable and when
that information would be posted on the hotline. It is up to the team reps
hosting games at fields other than Alief and Bear Creek to communicate field
conditions to the Women’s Commissioner in time to be posted on the hotline
before
3.
Donna Stultz (Spring Branch; coed league,
first division) suggested that the City be asked to have the
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1.
No December meeting; next meeting is Wednesday, January 7. This meeting
will be the deadline for spring season team registration and the over 30
women’s league player registration session.
2.
Spring season team registration info will be posted on the website
shortly.
3.
Skills clinic: Saturday, December 13 at a location to be announced
later.
Meeting
adjourned at